Shaun Caton is a British performance artist and painter, who has created over 280 live performances worldwide since the early 1980s. Often characterised by extreme duration (some performances have lasted 3 weeks) or brevity (some performances just 17 minutes), his works incorporate the installation of ancient and organic items, with the making of gigantic paintings, often illuminated by ultraviolet lighting.
Ex Voto: Source de seine
Watercolour on Paper
2018
30 x 24 cm
Signed lower left
Flame
Collage on card 2022
signed with initials
Image: 33 x 42 cms
Frame: 48 x 57 cms (white wood)
Shaun Caton
Shaun Caton is a British performance artist and painter, who has created over 280 live performances worldwide since the early 1980s. Often characterized by extreme duration (some performances have lasted 3 weeks) or brevity (some performances just 17 minutes), his works incorporate the installation of ancient and organic items, with the making of gigantic paintings, often illuminated by ultraviolet lighting. These works strongly reflect prehistoric or apocalyptic imagery.
Caton's work evolved through the 1980s gradually forming the ritualistic hallmark that he has come to be recognized and associated with. His work is deeply informed by a study of Ice Age cave art and portable art, and in 2007/2008 he visited many of the painted caves in the Dordogne region of France. Caton studied at Winchester School of Art and Goldsmith's London and became interested in experimenting with living art and the human body. His work is emotional and operates on many levels employing specially created soundtracks (composed in collaboration with sound artists brown sierra), altered lighting conditions, use of shadow play with puppetry, and live-action, and sculptural installation.
An update: Shaun Caton is an internationally renowned performance artist, who has presented some 700 live performances since the early 1980s. He also makes collages and montages. In 2026 he will publish 'Songs Seldom Heard', a book containing a selection of his montages and writings, with Peixoto Press.
In 2019 Shaun presented Il Giardino Grottesco, at the 58th Venice Biennale, in association with Alive in the Universe.
Recently, Shaun has presented a stunning new performance at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (August 2025).
He also recently had an exhibition of his drawings in France at BizArt BizArt.
He sees his montages as dream-like extensions of performances, which function like little photographic stills inside a viewing box. Shaun uses original vintage images to make his montages, which often recycle old colour postcards, parts of photos and printed material from 1930s-1980s sources.